please correct any major misunderstandings because I am learning from zero knowledge rsvp chris.macrae@yahoo.co.uk

1 two thirds of the world's poorest depend mainly on rice

1.1 its the only major food crop that grows in monsoon type climates

2 there isnt much advantage to trying to be a big farmer

3.1 modern knowhow should be able to lift a country's average production per hectacre to 4 tons while many developing countries are still stuck at half of this -that's where rice has a long history of being grown; japan has long been the most effective rice grower

3.2 rice has a communal and cross-culturally sustaining culture unlike any other crop

4.0 for all these reasons, the partnership of grameen intel, usaid, ifad setting a goal to triple cambodia's rice exports within 2-3 yeras is a timely case that the whole developing world of rice could learn with

4.1 there are hundreds of types of rice seeds; soil analysis matters as does a profile of what are the main challenges locally (and is climate changing these?) -different vraiants are needed if there is too little or too much water; different variant are needed if midday sun gets too hot etc -much rice is grown in deltas of big rivers potentially most at risk to climate?

5 it is predicted that rice will become the main crop of sub saharan africa within 10 years replacing maize- in terms of womens empowerment burindi is a very exciting case- during an amnesty men were swapped jobs for arms - because the women didnt have any arms they were left out until job creating with rice became a major womens program -with a little help from the howard buffett foundation and CARE Burundi -within 3 years " a new IRRI-Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office opened in Bujumura, Burundi. This will serve as a regional rice research hub to help support the development of the rice sector in Africa."

5.1 there is also an opportunity to grow much more rice in central americas

6 one of the greatest rice crop science technologist Dr. Mahabub Hossain(once rated as one of the top 10 changers of end poverty) moved from phillipines headquartered IRRI to brac headquarters about 8 yeras ago but he is elderly and hasnt enjoyed good health

7 while there are thousands of seed types have been invented - there is a relatively small group that really benfit the poor though the climate and nutrition challenges (rices one disadvantage is it lack vitamin a) of the future do require rapid innovation with the poorest in mind

7.1 the last thing the world need is big agri companies designing rice seeds that need to be purchased each year; however some of the new designed rices may be valuable if their innovators are very locally owned

7.2 rice needs its own open elearning campus curriculum at world bank and it needs app connecting knowhow because of the diversity and combinatorial knowhow actually needed at small farmer level

Director General GDA (General Directorate of Agriculture, Cambodia)... was extremely supportive of the event and showed keen interest to know more about such initiatives of Grameen Intel. He sees this program scaling across the country to upcoming ASPIRE program and others; and not just limited to rice, but other cereal, vegetables and fruits.In Cambodia Grameen Intel’s farming software applications will focus on farmers engaged in rice production. Farmers can also get benefit from seed selections, pesticide recommendations and marketing pricing information from wide ranges of unique software applications of the company.It may be mentioned that Grameen Intel offers a range of revolutionary agricultural software applications to cater modernized scientific farming and enable farmers to achieve sustainable high yield on their crops. These software applications have already been deployed in different projects in countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, India and Macedonia.These software applications can provide all kinds of agriculture related suggestions in a variety of categories including for seed selection and recommendation by ānkur software, soil nutrient analysis and fertilizer recommendation by mrittikā, crop protection recommendation protikār and direct market or buyer information to farmers by vistār software. The combination of all these applications is believed to be revolutionary in crop production.These software applications are fully designed and developed by product development team of Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd. in Bangladesh.

Burundi is an interesting case- after the war the amnesty traded arms for jobs; because the women didnt own arms they were left out until they were offered free knowhow int ho to get into rice in most efficient ways

IRRI’s objective in Burundi is to enhance the national capability in research on rice and rice-based systems in the country. IRRI first started working in Burundi in 2008 when a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the country and IRRI was signed. The beginnings of this agreement were first born when current IRRI Liaison Scientist and Coordinator for Burundi, Joseph Bigirimana, attended the Rice Research to Production Training Course at IRRI in 2006 where he met with IRRI management.

Following this preliminary meeting and further work by Joseph in Burundi, the Burundian government officially asked IRRI to collaborate with it. In 2006, IRRI sent experts to Burundi to investigate the rice production environment and saw there were opportunities for collaboration.

In 2009, the first joint project with CARE Burundi was established with support from theHoward Buffett Foundation to train ex-combatant women in rice production. IRRI is also sharing rice breeding lines with Burundi that are being tested at a number of IRRI field sites around the country in different rice production ecologies.

In November 2010, two Ministers of Burundi government visited IRRI fields on the Imbo plain. The two Ministers were Prof. Julien Nimubona, Minister of High Education and Scientific Research, and Ir. Odette Kayitesi, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock. They were accompanied by the Vice-Rector of Burundi University. In their speeches following the visit, both Ministers congratulated IRRI for its important role in food security in Burundi. They also highlighted rice as one of the government’s priority crops for the country and encouraged IRRI to continue with rice research.

BRAC’s executive director, Dr. Mahabub Hossain selected one of the 500 most powerful people in the world

02 May 2013, Dhaka. Dr. Mahabub Hossain, executive director of BRAC, has been selected as one of the 500 most powerful people in the world by Foreign Policy – a global magazine of politics and economics. Dr Hossain is the only one chosen from Bangladesh to have claimed a position in this very prestigious power map.

The Foreign Policy adheres to a ‘list of lists’ approach by which they consult various distinguished and globally influential sources like Fortune Global 500, Forbes World’s Most Powerful People, World 500, Top 100 NGOs, International Media Corporations, World University Rankings, Wall Street Journal Market Watch and such others, and pick 500 people who have proven to possess the outstanding capability of influencing global trajectories. In February 2013, BRAC was ranked number one among the top 100 NGOs in the world.

Dr Hossain joined as Executive Director of BRAC in June 2007. Prior to joining BRAC, he was head of the Social Sciences Division at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines, and coordinator of the Consortium for Unfavourable Rice Environments (CURE) in Asia. Dr Hossain began his career in 1970, as a staff economist at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (former PIDE) and rose through the ranks to become its director general during 1988-91. He also worked as a visiting scientist at the Institute of Developing Economies in Tokyo (1981), the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC (1985-87), and the Overseas Development Institute, London (1990).

Dr Hossain received his MA in Economics from Dhaka University in 1969 and PhD in Economics from Cambridge University, England in 1977. His major area of research interest is on the rural development policies. Dr Hossain serves as a member of the Board of Governors at Bangladesh Agriculture University, Mymensigh, and BRAC University. He is a founding member of the North-South University Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Council of the CGIAR Harvest Plus Project run by IFPRI and CIAT, the Rice Advisory Council of the Syngenta Corporation for Asia and the Pacific. He is the Chairperson of Bangladesh Rice Foundation, a civil society think tank on rice policies. He is also a member of the Global Knowledge Advisory Commission of The World Bank.

Eighth Wonder Kalinga Unoy is now being served at Marco & Pepe Restaurant, 289 Grove Streer, Jersey City, NJ 07302. If you are in the area, check out this highly acclaimed restaurant.

The Provincial Government of Ifugao awarded a Certificate of Recognition to the Rice Terraces Farmers Cooperative (RTFC) as a producer of an Ifugao certified product. The RFTC is our coop partner in Ifugao.

Delivering rice research and technologies to rice farmers worldwide

IRRI works closely with rice science networks in major rice-growing nations. We partner with national agricultural research and extension systems, helping IRRI’s research reach where it is needed the most.

The nations below play a vital role in sharing our research and adapting our technologies to their local conditions and needs. This broadens our reach and multiplies our impact.

Bangladesh’s partnership with IRRI goes back more than 45 years. IRRI's first outreach program in Bangladesh was in 1965 -- when a set of 303 rice varieties, which constituted the Institute's first international rice testing program, was evaluated at Savar Farm, a government-run dairy enterprise. This was with support from the Ford Foundation. The following year, the first widely distributed high-yielding semidwarf rice variety, IR8, was introduced into the country.

As a result of food shortages in the late 1970s, many farmers were forced to eat their rice seed and traditional varieties were lost. In the 1980s, IRRI reintroduced more than 750 traditional Cambodian rice varieties to Cambodia from its seed bank in the Philippines—a vivid demonstration of the foresight that created the bank in the 1960s.

Iran and IRRI's collaboration started in 1976, and IRRI scientists have since visited Iran to monitor existing projects in the country and several work plans have also been signed to support these collaborations and capacity-building partnerships.

Mozambique has a 500-year old tradition of rice cultivation. Today, rice is seen more as a cash crop. Most of the farmers produce rice, but don’t eat it. IRRI was first established in Mozambique in 2006 with a mandate to increase rice production and build capacity to sustain the country’s rice industry.

Cooperation between the government of Nepal and IRRI began in 1985. This covers research on improvement of rainfed lowland and irrigated rice varieties, plant pathology, entomology, soil science, agronomy, and farming systems.

Rice is famed to have had a long and regal history in Sri Lanka. Its importance goes far beyond its status as a primary food source in this island nation. Synonymously, rice plays an important role in the country's cultural identity, tradition, and politics.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam and IRRI have been partners since 1963, in a wide range of collaboration in the fields of rice breeding material exchange, rice varietal improvement, resource management, and capacity building. Since then, a total of 89 IRRI breeding lines have been released as varieties in Vietnam. IRRI varieties now cover 70% of the rice-growing areas in Vietnam.

Rice has become an important crop for Burundi, which increased its rice production by 316% between 1984 and 2011. In 2010 Burundi was importing about one-third of its rice and making efforts to further increase production. IRRI has been officially collaborating with Burundi since 2008.

IRRI and China have been collaborating for more than 30 years. A key partnership was in a mega-project which began in 1997, intensively focused on rice research and training. This huge undertaking of 12 collaborative projects resulted in 49 super rice varieties being released in China since 1999. Yields increased to as much as 12 tons per hectare.

Indonesia’s rice consumption in 2010 was more than 139 kilograms per capita per year and is among the highest in the world. IRRI estimates that Indonesia will need 38% more rice in the next 25 years, which means that the average yield of 4.6 tons per hectare must rise to more than 6 tons per hectare to fill the gap.

Since 1965, IRRI has been involved with Myanmar researchers, extension personnel, and farmers in introducing rice breeding material, hybrid rice technology, and locally adaptable designs for rice transplanters and threshers. The rice variety IR8 was introduced in Myanmar in 1967. It was called Ya Gyaw, meaning “more than a hundred.”

IRRI began its first initiative in Pakistan in 1966 when the Ford Foundation decided to fund IRRI directly to hire rice specialists. It was through this arrangement that Kenneth Mueller was hired as a rice specialist to lead the Pakistan accelerated rice production project.

Through the Rural Development Administration (RDA), the Republic of Korea (commonly called South Korea) has been collaborating with IRRI since the 1960s to breed the temperate Japonica rice variety with the tropically grown indica variety.

As far back as 1941, Thailand recognized the importance of deepwater rice research by building the Huntra Rice Experiment Station. The first formal link between Thailand and IRRI was made in 1960-1963 when Prince M.C. Chakrabandhu became a founding member of the IRRI Board of Trustees.

varieties with improved toleranceof environmental stresses, one ofwhich is noteworthy as it combines

tolerance of iron toxicity and of cold

temperatures:Iron-tolerant

• ARICA 6

(IR75887-1-3-WAB1):

released in Guinea and

identied for release in Ghana

• ARICA 8 (

WAT 1046-B-43-2-2-2): released in Burkina Fasoand identied for release in

Guinea

Cold-tolerant identied in Mali

• ARICA 9 (

SIM2 SUMADEL)

• ARICA 10 (

WAS 200-B-B-1-1-1)

Salt-tolerant

• ARICA 11 (

IR63275-B-1-1-1-3-

3-2): released in The Gambia.Cold- and iron-tolerant

• ARICA 7 (

WAS 21-B-B-20-4-3-3): identied for release

in Ghana (tolerant of iron

toxicity)/identied for release

in Senegal (cold-tolerant)These varieties were evaluatedthrough the STRASA project,implemented by IRRI and AfricaRicein partnership with nationalprograms in 18 countriesand with support from

the Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation.“It’s wonderful tosee that products of

the rst two phases of

the STRASA projectin Africa have nowreached the stage tomove into farmers’

elds,” said Dr. Atlin. “I

am also impressed by the

Africa Rice Breeding Task

Force testing network setup in partnership withthe national systemsas it is a great conduitfor moving improvedmaterials into

farmers’ elds.”

In addition to theARICAs, the STRASAproject has manyother stress-tolerantor climate-smart ricevarieties in the pipelinethat will be delivered tofarmers. The STRASA projectuses conventional breedingcombined with molecular breedingto develop these kinds of varieties.“Incorporating stress toleranceinto popular high-yielding varieties

has proven to be a very eectiveapproach,” explained Dr. Manneh.

More than 30 stress-tolerant ricevarieties have already been releasedin nine African countries withsupport from the STRASA project,according to Dr. Manneh. However,as they were developed before thelaunching of the ARICA brand, theywere not nominated as ARICAs.

Diﬀusing technology

Through the project, STRASApartners produced more than 15,000tons of improved seed between2008 and 2012 and distributed theseto farmers. More than a thousandscientists, technicians, and farmershave been trained in improvedrice cultivation techniques, seedproduction, new breeding methods,and seed enterprise management.“One of the key impactpoints for STRASAwill be thequantity of seedproduced anddisseminatedto farmers,”said Dr.Manneh.“As seedproductioncontinuesto be a major

boleneck in Africa,

the main thrust of ourrecent STRASA meeting was to helpcountries develop seed road maps.”The project is linking upwith various partners, includingnongovernment organizationssuch as the Alliance for a Green

Revolution in Africa and BRAC, as

well as private seed producers suchas FEPRODES and NAFASO, for thedissemination of improved seed inAfrica. AfricaRice has developed anautomated monitoring and evaluation

tool to track the diusion of new

technologies.

Multiple tolerance

Sometimes, various stresses, such assalinity, cold, submergence, and iron

toxicity, can occur at the same time.

“That’s why the third phaseof the STRASA project will focuson breeding for multiple stress

tolerance,” Dr. Manneh explained.

The rice varieties that are beingdeveloped will help overcome thehurdles imposed by the widespreadenvironmental stresses that limit riceyields in Africa.“To achieve this, we willstrengthen our collaboration withdevelopment partners who havethe capacity for rapid deliveryof improved rice varieties to ourfarmers,” Dr. Manneh added.

Ms. Mohapatra is the head of Marketingand Communications at AfricaRice.

RICE-CROSSES made aspart of STRASA-Africapartnership.SELECTINGRICE for coldtolerance.April-June 2014

by

Paula Bianca Ferrer

R

ice is important to thepeople and the economy ofNepal, where agricultureemploys around 80% of thepopulation and contributes 37% tothe country’s gross domestic product.Rice is grown on more than 1.5million hectares, producing a total ofabout 5 million tons and an averageyield of 3.3 tons per hectare in 2011-12.

IRRI-Nepal partnership

The International Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI) started working with

Nepal in 1985. The rst collaboration

covered rice varietal improvementfor rainfed lowland and irrigated

elds, plant pathology, entomology,

soil science, agronomy, and farmingsystems. It also involved educationand training of Nepalese scientistsand technology transfer.More activities took place after

Director General Purushoam

P. Gorkhaly of the country’sDepartment of Agriculture andLivestock Services (DoALS) visitedIRRI in 1987. IRRI and DoALS carriedout rice varietal improvement andrelated research activities in 1999.The country had also been involvedin the activities of the Asian RiceBiotechnology Network and theInternational Network for GeneticEvaluation of Rice, both based at IRRIheadquarters.Also in 1999, the NepalAgricultural Research Council(NARC) and IRRI strengthened theirpartnership for rice improvement inthe country. In 2001, NARC and IRRIheld a dialogue to develop a projectoutline to meet Nepal’s rice researchand development requirements basedon farmers’ needs and to identifythe roles of NARC, IRRI, and otherstakeholders in addressing thepriority needs.In 2005, the Nepal-IRRI Country

Oce was established and the Nepal

Rice Knowledge Bank (NRKB) waslaunched on the NARC website,

Country highlight

IRRI and Nepal

making 21 fact sheets on ricetechnologies accessible to extensionworkers and farmers. In relation tothis, three national and four regionaltraining activities for agricultural

scientists, extension ocers, and

NGO personnel were conducted onusing the NRKB and developing factsheets.From 1980 to 2008, Nepal andIRRI partnered on some projects aspart of the Rice-Wheat Consortiumfor the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Theseprojects became a platform for arange of on-farm and on-stationsystem research supported by theAsian Development Bank (ADB),Department for InternationalDevelopment, the International Fundfor Agricultural Development (IFAD),the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment, World Bank, and theBill & Melinda Gates Foundation,and evolved into the Cereal SystemsInitiative for South Asia (CSISA)project in 2009.From 2005 to 2008, NARC andIRRI completed three collaborativeprojects funded by ADB and IFAD.

The laer supported a project on the

management of marginal rainfeduplands focusing on upland andlowland rice. Through this project,community seed production becameinstitutionalized.ADB supported a project onwater-saving technologies, croppingapproaches, and other relatedtechnologies such as zero tillage. This

reduced labor and costs, less seedling breakage, and increased yieldthrough various modern technologiesintroduced to them. Some resource-conserving technologies in rice-wheat systems such as zero tillage

have advanced wheat sowing by 2–4weeks, allowing farmers to save 64%

of the cost in land preparation andseeding.Laser land leveling, directseeding, unpuddled transplantingof rice, and reduced tillage on wheat,maize, lentil, and winter maizehave all been adopted by farmers toimprove their management practices.Residue management, the use of a leafcolor chart for nitrogen management,weed management, rotation withother crops, and other practices havealso contributed to higher overallcrop productivity.Seed growers also receivedtraining on quality seed productionand establishing linkages withresource centers as sources of qualityseeds and market information.

Better rice varieties

Many IRRI-bred rice varieties for

drought and ood tolerance—orclimate-smart rice—were successfully

tested in Nepal. As a result, threedrought-tolerant rice varieties, Sukha

Sub1 and Sambha Mahsuri-Sub1 werealso released to help farmers in thesouthern Terai. To date, NARC hasreleased 69 rice varieties for bothirrigated and rainfed environments,with IRRI genotypes contributingmore than 60% of the varietiesreleased in Nepal.

Capacity building

A total of 303 Nepalese scholarscompleted their studies and shorttraining courses from 1966 to 2013.Of this number, 51 completed their

doctoral degree, 47 nished their

master’s degree, 10 were on-the-job

trainees, and 195 aended various

short courses at IRRI.

Current research work

Developing a seed business model ispart of the project in Nepal, in whichkey seed specialists, government

ocials, private companies,

community groups or cooperatives,and others became involved. Thetarget stakeholders of the project are

use of compost, soil conservationpractices, and principles andimportance of community-basedorganizations, among others.The project also includes a seedproduction component for uplandrice farmers and the establishment ofcommunity seed banks.In 2012, the second phase of theCSISA project started in the mid- andfar-western regions of Nepal where

food decits were common. CSISAveried dierent technologies for

rice, maize, and lentil productionthrough demonstrations and minikitdistribution of seed in those tworegions. CSISA also emphasizesthe dissemination of technologiesand capacity building of extension

Many seed companies,cooperatives, and community-basedseed producer groups are multiplyingseeds of climate-smart rice varietiesand making those seeds availablelocally. Seed companies, cooperatives,agriculture and veterinary serviceproviders, seed producer groups,and rice millers are developing seednetworking mechanisms amongthemselves by organizing workshopsand meetings. The Nepal governmenthas taken ownership of this project because of its positive impact in

farmers’ elds.

What lies ahead

Nepal and IRRI will continue to

work together to develop beer rice

production technologies for bothrainfed and irrigated ecosystems,including varietal improvement and best management practices. IRRI willwork with NARC in strengtheningcapacity in hybrid rice, postharvesttechnologies, socioeconomic andpolicy research, the rice seed sector,and capacity building of scientiststhrough training activities.The collaborative programwill be pursued under the sixthemes of the Global Rice SciencePartnership (GRiSP), the CGIARresearch program on rice. IRRI beganlinking the dissemination of ricetechnologies with other bilateralprojects related to climate changeand food security in the country.And, this work will continue inthe future for the wider adoptionof climate-smart rice as well asdiscussions on fund raising on riceresearch and development for Nepal.

Ms. Ferrer is a science communicationspecialist at IRRI.

Nepal: fast facts

Population:

30.98

million

1

Total land area:

147,181

sq km

1

Average rice yield

3

:

2.98

tons per ha Total rice production:

5.07

million tons

3

Area planted to rice:

1.53

million ha

3

1

CIA,2014.

2

WorldRiceStatistics,2012

3

FAOSTAT,2012.n Malayalam, the predominantlanguage spoken in the Indianstate of Kerala, Regulus, the10th asterism, consists of asickle shaped group of stars in thefront of the constellation of Leo.

Although the passion of Dr. Parisfor gender issues has always beenapparent to anyone she gets thechance to talk with about her work,her marriage is a crucial aspect that

arms her life’s work.

“I am lucky to have a husbandwho allows me to spread my wingsand still come home to a warm andloving family,” she said.Even when she was contemplatingtaking up her doctorate studiesabroad, her husband reassured herthat he would take care of theirchildren in her absence.Dr. Paris pursued her PhD fromthe University of Western Sydney in

Australia and later became an aliate

scientist in IRRI’s Social Sciences

Division. “I was the rst nationallyrecruited sta who did not have to

resign from my post to get a PhD,”she said.

That, and many other rsts,denes Dr. Paris’s journey at IRRI. She

happily looks back on her path evenas she contemplates new trails to blazein retirement. For now, she savors thetime she spends with her husband,their two sons, Carlo and Ivan, anddaughter-in-law, Myles. “Andre, mygrandson who is the apple of our eyes, just gained a new regular playmate,”Dr. Paris laughed.

Ms. Baroña-Edra is a sciencecommunication specialist at IRRI.

Thelma Paris has contributed to bridging the gapbetween rice technologies and women farmers

by

Ma. Lizbeth Baroña-Edra

BEHIND THIS successful woman is her family whohas enabled Dr. Paris to pursue her passion ofempowering other women.

n the coastal polder zone ofBangladesh, satisfying fooddemand and improving thelivelihoods of about 8 millionpeople while at the same timepreserving natural resources aremajor challenges.

Mapping opportunities to increaseproductivity in coastal Bangladesh

Eighty percent of the populationin this zone lives below the nationalpoverty line and many farms relyon a single low-yielding crop ofrice grown during the

aman

(rainy)season. A large area remainsuncultivated at other times of the yearthe population’s food security andlivelihood because the region hasfertile soils and a good networkof rivers and

khals

(channels forirrigation and drainage). TheGanges Basin DevelopmentChallenge (GBDC) Program ofthe CGIAR Challenge Programfor Water and Food is focusingon improving livelihoods andincreasing productivity sustainablyin the coastal polder zone, and hasdeveloped and tested innovativecropping systems and watermanagement practices suited to thelocal conditions.Before a new cropping systemcan be recommended, it is importantto identify its “extrapolation domain,”which determines where it could besuccessful.There are many sustainable and

proftable cropping systems that

can be adopted in the polder regionand each one will have its ownextrapolation domain map. Thesemaps can be assessed together todetermine the most appropriateland use in a given polder and thussupport local and regional resourcemanagement decision making. This

collaborative eort has brought

together expertise and data frommany organizations to answerquestions on how productivity in acomplex and fragile environment can be sustainably increased.

Dr. Chandna is a researcher in remotesensing and GIS modeling in the SocialSciences Division (SSD) at IRRI. Dr.Nelson is a geographer and head of theGIS laboratory at IRRI. Mr. Khan isa principal specialist at the Instituteof Water Modeling in Bangladesh. Dr.

Hossain is a principal scientifc ocer

of the Soil Resource DevelopmentInstitute in Bangladesh. Mr. Rana, isan assistant engineer in the GIS Unitof the Local Government EngineeringDepartment of Bangladesh. Mr. Rashid isan executive engineer at the BangladeshWater Development Board. Dr. Mondalis a collaborative research scientist inthe Crop and Environmental SciencesDivision and SSD at IRRI. Dr.Tuong isan IRRI consultant.

because of waterlogging, salinity,poor drainage, and poor managementof the water infrastructure. Thecoastal zone is also highly vulnerable

to ooding, drought, and cyclones.

However, the coastal area isalso full of opportunities t

o improveOne example system is rice-shrimp cultivation where rice iscultivated between August andDecember followed by shrimp between February and July. Theland-use requirements for rice are based on rainfall in July and August,river water salinity in August,inundation depth, proximity to adrainage canal, and soil type. Therequirements for shrimp cultivationare based on weather, water salinity,inundation depth, and soil. Theserequirements are combined in a

decision tree to defne dierent

levels of suitability for this croppingsystem. Once this model is in place,spatial datasets for each requirementare collected, and areas that arehighly, moderately, marginally, or notsuitable for a shrimp-rice system can be mapped.

BANGLADESH

Dhaka

Extrapolation domain map for shrimp-rice cultivation.

20 21

Rice Today

April-June 2014

Rice Today

April-June 2014

22 23

Rice Today

April-June 2014

Rice Today

April-June 2014

Rice Today

April-June 2014, Vol. 13, No. 2

G e n e H e t t e l

Bhutan, a small South Asian country wedged between India and China high in the Himalayas, has some of the most spectacular rice landscapes on theSubcontinent. Here in Trashigang District in the extreme eastern part of the country, the rice harvest has begun in mid-October.

Bhutan, a small South Asian country wedged between India and China high in the Himalayas, has some of the most spectacular rice landscapes on theSubcontinent. Here in Trashigang District in the extreme eastern part of the country, the rice harvest has begun in mid-October.

27

Rice Today

April-June 2014

26

Rice Today

April-June 2014

Rice fables: India

28

Rice Today

April-June 2014

A

chim Dobermann’s termas head of research at theInternational Rice ResearchInstitute (IRRI) saw a periodof constructive upheavals in the waythe Institute conducted science andreshaped rice research into a trulyglobal alliance.“The job of deputy directorgeneral for research at IRRI isprobably the most interesting jobin the whole CGIAR,” says Dr.Dobermann, a soil scientist wholeft IRRI in 2000 and came backin 2007 to head the program onsustaining productivity in intensiverice-based systems and became thehead of research in 2008. Under hisleadership, IRRI developed a wholenew strategy that stabilized fundingand gave researchers space to becreative. A lesser visionary could not

have pulled this o.

A more stable “fuel line”

IRRI was about to mark its 50th yearand seemed ready for a new directionwhen Dr. Dobermann took the reins ofits research. “I came at the right time, Ithink, as IRRI had embarked on a newstrategic plan, which presented manyopportunities,” he says.For instance, he perceived agrowing international interest inhybrid rice, but IRRI was hamperedin obtaining public funding for itshybrid rice breeding program.“The only way out of the bindwas a whole new model—a public-/private-sector partnership,” Dr.Dobermann recounts.So, the Hybrid Rice DevelopmentConsortium (HRDC) was formed,comprising 15 national researchcenters and 19 private companymembers. Through it, germplasmexchange between IRRI and itspartners grew more than tenfold

from ve years ago and now the

HRDC has 68 members nearlyequally represented by the public andprivate sectors. The new partnershipmodel also resulted in a more stablefunding base and opened up a wholerange of partnership options for IRRI,especially with private companies.

by

Leah Baroña-Cruz

In the last ve years, many

new programs were developed,expanding in both scope andintensity IRRI had not seen before.The Institute started projects in newregions, such as East and southern

Africa. It succeeded in geing

support from new donors, includingthe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,tripling the Institute’s fundingduring the period.Forming alongside thesedevelopments was the Global RiceScience Partnership (GRiSP)—the

“mother ship” that unied all theseeorts.

One program to run them all

As head of research, Dr. Dobermanncited as his biggest challenge “the

constant need and diculty” ofgeing a long-term research strategy

Puttingriceon

the global agenda

TAKING THE PLUNGE into the hard, risky businessof actually growing rice, Dr. Dobermann was able tosee things better from the farmers' perspective.RICE IS BECOMING increasingly important in Africa.In Liberia, Dr. Dobermann (

extreme right

) interactsin the ﬁeld with his AfricaRice counterpart MarcoWopereis and local farmers.

I S A G A N I S E R R A N O R R A M A N , A F R I C A R I C E

29

Rice Today

April-June 2014

funded from many projects andsources.About 70% of IRRI’s research isfunded by some 140 grants from morethan 60 donors, each with its own setof work plans, partners, and reports.An overarching, longer-term researchagenda that goes beyond the goalsand timelines of individual projects iswhat he believed would help IRRI getall of its diverse projects into a singlegroove.Things started taking shapein 2008, during the annual generalassembly of CGIAR in Mozambique,when the 15-center group wasconsidering major changes in the wayit worked. Dr. Dobermann hoped

that any reforms would somehow x

what he called “too much short-termthinking and too much short-termfunding.”“People were talking about‘mega-programs,’ but seemed unclearon what those might look like,” hesays of the 2008 meeting. “We felt thatthe best way forward was to create anexample.”On the way back fromMozambique, he and IRRI DirectorGeneral Robert Zeigler visualizedwhat an integrated global programon rice that combined the missionsof IRRI, the Africa Rice Center(AfricaRice), the rice program of theInternational Center for TropicalAgriculture (CIAT), and hundreds ofother partners worldwide would looklike.

That idea was ne-tuned, and the

plan was endorsed by CGIAR andmajor national partners in Africa,Asia, and Latin America. “We alsodiscussed this a lot with the donors,and they were very encouraging,” Dr.Dobermann adds.

He believes that GRiSP—the rst

new research program of CGIAR—is “still very much the standard”for the consortium's other researchprograms.

On-the-job lessons

Some visions turned out to bequite tricky to carry out, especiallysome very large-scale projects, butimportant lessons were to be learnedfrom these.“Most of the things we set out todo, we achieved,” he says. “In somecases, we achieved more than wehoped for. And then there are thosethat did not work out as we intended,

or remain unnished.”

Many changes had to take placeon a smaller scale to support themajor shifts in the big picture, includ-ing adjustments in IRRI’s internalresearch management structure, im-proved career paths for the research

To have the greatest impact, Dr.Dobermann believes IRRI mustmaintain its focus on high-qualityscience instead of moving too fardownstream into areas for whichother organizations may have thecomparative advantage.“IRRI needs to focus oninnovations for the future, but thesemust be demand-driven and veryclearly linked to real-world solutionsneeded by farmers and others alongthe value chain,” he says.

“We must also continue to nd

ways to work with the private sector,especially because private investmentin rice R&D has been rising,particularly in Asia.“Lastly, I think that IRRI is inneed of a whole new education strat-egy,” concludes Dr. Dobermann, whofor a time put on a farmer’s hat for thepioneering

IRRI Agronomy Challenge

,which many consider to be the Insti-

tute's rst “reality show” on growing

a crop of rice. (see

Knee-deep in mud

onpage 16-19 of

Rice Today

Vol. 11, No. 3)“Many of us still don’t fullyunderstand what we’re doing andwhy we’re doing it,” he says. “Thegeneral education side of things—the big why—should go with everythingelse we teach.”

A place for big ideas

“There is never a perfect time toleave a job, because the work needsto continue,” says Dr. Dobermann,who will assume the post of directorof Rothamsted Research in the U.K.“But, I feel quite comfortable leavingnow because I believe that I haveachieved many, if not all, of thegoals that I set for myself in termsof providing a new and expandedstrategy for IRRI’s research.”He credits IRRI for being a placewhere big ideas get a chance at prov-ing themselves: “I do not know of anyother research institution where onecan have the combination of a verychallenging and inspiring mission,and a work environment like this.”

n the coastal polder zone ofBangladesh, satisfying fooddemand and improving thelivelihoods of about 8 millionpeople while at the same timepreserving natural resources aremajor challenges.

Mapping opportunities to increaseproductivity in coastal Bangladesh

Eighty percent of the populationin this zone lives below the nationalpoverty line and many farms relyon a single low-yielding crop ofrice grown during the

aman

(rainy)season. A large area remainsuncultivated at other times of the yearthe population’s food security andlivelihood because the region hasfertile soils and a good networkof rivers and

khals

(channels forirrigation and drainage). TheGanges Basin DevelopmentChallenge (GBDC) Program ofthe CGIAR Challenge Programfor Water and Food is focusingon improving livelihoods andincreasing productivity sustainablyin the coastal polder zone, and hasdeveloped and tested innovativecropping systems and watermanagement practices suited to thelocal conditions.Before a new cropping systemcan be recommended, it is importantto identify its “extrapolation domain,”which determines where it could besuccessful.There are many sustainable and

proftable cropping systems that

can be adopted in the polder regionand each one will have its ownextrapolation domain map. Thesemaps can be assessed together todetermine the most appropriateland use in a given polder and thussupport local and regional resourcemanagement decision making. This

collaborative eort has brought

together expertise and data frommany organizations to answerquestions on how productivity in acomplex and fragile environment can be sustainably increased.

Dr. Chandna is a researcher in remotesensing and GIS modeling in the SocialSciences Division (SSD) at IRRI. Dr.Nelson is a geographer and head of theGIS laboratory at IRRI. Mr. Khan isa principal specialist at the Instituteof Water Modeling in Bangladesh. Dr.

Hossain is a principal scientifc ocer

of the Soil Resource DevelopmentInstitute in Bangladesh. Mr. Rana, isan assistant engineer in the GIS Unitof the Local Government EngineeringDepartment of Bangladesh. Mr. Rashid isan executive engineer at the BangladeshWater Development Board. Dr. Mondalis a collaborative research scientist inthe Crop and Environmental SciencesDivision and SSD at IRRI. Dr.Tuong isan IRRI consultant.

because of waterlogging, salinity,poor drainage, and poor managementof the water infrastructure. Thecoastal zone is also highly vulnerable

to ooding, drought, and cyclones.

However, the coastal area isalso full of opportunities t

o improveOne example system is rice-shrimp cultivation where rice iscultivated between August andDecember followed by shrimp between February and July. Theland-use requirements for rice are based on rainfall in July and August,river water salinity in August,inundation depth, proximity to adrainage canal, and soil type. Therequirements for shrimp cultivationare based on weather, water salinity,inundation depth, and soil. Theserequirements are combined in a

Soon after I arrived in Cambodia, I made a trip to see a few of the activities that USAID supports to improve the lives of rural Cambodians. Agriculture — especially rice — is of huge importance to Cambodia and I was able to see how our support is helping farmers become more successful by introducing new techniques. I also saw how our funds are improving Cambodian children’s education by strengthening school facilities and increasing their knowledge about nutrition.

Not far from Cambodia’s most famous landmark, Angkor Wat, farmers in Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces are learning about better, more efficient ways to raise fish and grow crops and vegetables. In addition to the training and supplies they receive through our food security program, USAID HARVEST, rural families are also eating better as a result of the nutritional information provided by HARVEST’s trainers. The bottom line is that their production is allowing farmers to earn more income and provide their families with a more diverse and nutritional food basket. Greg Beck, USAID’s Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Asia Bureau, saw this when he enjoyed personal interaction with one such farmer during his visit this year. Read about his reflections on his Cambodia visit here.

School kids in Kampong Thom learn about the importance of sanitation and have access to clean water at school through USAID’s support. Photo: USAID/Michael Gebremedhin

Nutrition is a very important priority for me and my team, as it continues to be one of Cambodia’s main development challenges. Studies show that too many Cambodians suffer from malnutrition. That’s why USAID’s program (Improving Basic Education in Cambodia) not only focuses on the classroom, but in the vegetable garden, too. In addition to providing computer labs, the project also teaches students about nutrition, water and sanitation by teaching them to install and maintain a vegetable garden. They also learn about the importance of protein and how important fish is to their protein requirements. These valuable nutritional resources will help school children eat right, grow strong and eventually join Cambodia’s growing workforc

Dad (Norman Macrae) created the genre Entrepreneurial Revolution to debate how to make the net generation the most productive and collaborative . We had first participated in computer assisted learning experiments in 1972. Welcome to more than 40 years of linking pro-youth economics networks- debating can the internet be the smartest media our species has ever collaborated around?

1972: Norman Macrae starts up Entrepreneurial Revolution debates in The Economist. Will we the peoples be in time to change 20th C largest system designs and make 2010s worldwide youth's most productive time? or will we go global in a way that ends sustainability of ever more villages/communities? Drayton was inspired by this genre to coin social entrepreneur in 1978 ,,continue the futures debate here